So I am sending you to those who are impudent and obstinate children, and you shall say to them, ‘This is what the Lord God says:’
Parallel translations
- WEB The children are impudent and stiff-hearted. I am sending you to them, and you shall tell them, ‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh.’
- KJV For they are impudent children and stiffhearted. I do send thee unto them; and thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD.
- BSB They are obstinate and stubborn children. I am sending you to them, and you are to say to them, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says.’
- NKJV For they are impudent and stubborn children. I am sending you to them, and you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God.’
- NLT They are a stubborn and hard-hearted people. But I am sending you to say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says!’
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The people are impudent and stubborn, yet Ezekiel must declare, 'Thus says the Lord Yahweh.' He speaks God's word regardless of their hard hearts.
Overview
Israel's stubbornness does not cancel God's command to speak. The formula 'Thus says the Lord Yahweh' marks the message as divine authority, not human opinion. The prophet's duty is faithfulness in delivery, not guaranteed acceptance. This anticipates Christ and His apostles, who proclaimed God's word faithfully even to resistant hearers.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 16
- Ezek 3:7But the house of Israel will not listen to you, for they will not listen to me; for all the house of Israel are obstinate and hard-hearted.
- Jer 5:3O Yahweh, don’t your eyes look on truth? You have stricken them, but they were not grieved. You have consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction. They have made their faces harder than a rock. They have refused to return.
- Jer 6:15Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush. Therefore they shall fall among those who fall; at the time that I visit them, they shall be cast down,” says Yahweh.
- Ps 95:8Don’t harden your heart, as at Meribah, as in the day of Massah in the wilderness,
- Isa 48:4Because I knew that you are obstinate, and your neck is an iron sinew, and your brow brass;
- Prov 21:29A wicked man hardens his face; but as for the upright, he establishes his ways.
- 1 Kgs 22:14Micaiah said, “As Yahweh lives, what Yahweh says to me, that I will speak.”
- 2 Chr 30:8Now don’t be stiff-necked, as your fathers were, but yield yourselves to Yahweh, and enter into his sanctuary, which he has sanctified forever, and serve Yahweh your God, that his fierce anger may turn away from you.
- Deut 10:16Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiff-necked.
- 2 Chr 36:13He also rebelled against king Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God; but he stiffened his neck, and hardened his heart against turning to Yahweh, the God of Israel.
- Deut 31:27For I know your rebellion, and your stiff neck. Behold, while I am yet alive with you today, you have been rebellious against Yahweh. How much more after my death?
- Acts 20:26–27Therefore I testify to you today that I am clean from the blood of all men,
- Jer 3:3Therefore the showers have been withheld, and there has been no latter rain; yet you have a prostitute’s forehead. You refused to be ashamed.
- Matt 10:16“Behold, I send you out as sheep among wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.
- Jer 8:12Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore they shall fall among those who fall; in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down, says Yahweh.
- Jer 26:2–3“Yahweh says: ‘Stand in the court of Yahweh’s house, and speak to all the cities of Judah, which come to worship in Yahweh’s house, all the words that I command you to speak to them. Don’t omit a word.
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The promise of one Shepherd-King David, a new heart and new Spirit, and the river of life flowing from the temple all stream toward Christ, the good Shepherd who gives the Spirit.
How Ezekiel 2:4 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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